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Carry Nation Biography

Name at birth: Carrie Amelia Moore

Carry Nation joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1899 to help in the fight against alcohol. By 1900 she had made a name for herself as an aggressive supporter of prohibition who would use use rocks, hammers or hatchets to destroy saloons and their liquor. Nation and her tactics were controversial even within the temperance movement. She was arrested 30 times between 1900 and 1910, but her antics drew national attention to the issue of alcohol prohibition in the United States. She died in 1911, but her efforts paid off in 1919 with the passage of the 18th Amendment banning “intoxicating liquors.” The era known as Prohibition lasted until 1933, when the 21st Amendment repealed the ban. Her memoir, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, was published in 1905.

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Nation was married twice: to the alcoholic Dr. Charles Gloyd (1865-69) and then to David A. Nation (1877-1901). Some confusion exists over the spelling of Nation’s first name; official records seem to indicate that she was originally named Carrie, but in later years she adopted Carry and liked to say that her movement would help carry a nation.